| valign="top" | Itsy Bitsy - I found this unidentified spider in my garden in South Africa. Without a dedicated macro lens I had to make do by getting as close as possible, resulting in way too much flash. Luckily the kitchen was close by and I converted a plastic chopping board into a makeshift diffuser. It was summer so I was being eaten alive by mosquitoes, but I took solace in the knowledge that my subject would soon be returning the favour! '''- Ben Price '''

| valign="top" | Itsy Bitsy - I found this unidentified spider in my garden in South Africa. Without a dedicated macro lens I had to make do by getting as close as possible, resulting in way too much flash. Luckily the kitchen was close by and I converted a plastic chopping board into a makeshift diffuser. It was summer so I was being eaten alive by mosquitoes, but I took solace in the knowledge that my subject would soon be returning the favour! '''- Ben Price '''

+

|-

+

| [[Image:AnnaPhillips_2012.jpg|left|700px|Photo by Anna Phillips]]

+

| valign="top" | Temnocephalans from a turtle in Boracéia, near Saõ Paulo, Brazil; November 2011. On our way to open the mist nets for birds early one morning, a turtle crossed our path. Once we became better acquainted, we saw she had brought friends. '''- Anna Phillips '''

|-

|-

|}

|}

Revision as of 17:02, 23 February 2012

This page showcases the entries to the 2012 Biological Photo Contest. Voting will commence in the week preceding the Grad Symposium with winners announced at the end of the Symposium.
To enter, send your full resolution photo and caption to james.mickley@gmail.com and it will be put on this page.

Grad Student Entries

A wasp guards her nest under a leaf in Ecuador. When you are expecting strange tropical species at every turn, it is comforting to see a scene so reminiscent of home. - Brigette Zacharczenko

Eleven at night on the 12th of September, 2009, I found myself walking alone on a cloudless night in a warm, humid, tropical forest. What seemed to be just another ordinary moment quickly turn to one of great elation! At first sight of your green eyes, yellow skin, and wrinkly face my heart began to flutter. Oh, Centurio senex, the moment we shared was brief but the thought of your musky odor and extraordinary neck skin flaps still bring a smile to my face today. - Laura Cisneros

This is a very old northern white cedar (Thuja occidentalis) on the shores of Lake Champlain in Vermont. This species holds the record for the oldest trees in eastern North America and can live over 1000 years. While the age of this specimen isn't known, it was already a very old tree in the late 1800s. - James Mickley

Sunrise over the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, California. Imagine this: After a long day of field work you drive all night to arrive at your next field site. You toss and turn all night in the back of your truck, tortured by doubts and insecurities about the quality and quantity of your data. You manage a few short bouts of sleep, and when you wake up you see it: the light at the end of your thesis..... - Diego Sustaita

This photo was taken in the Una Biological Reserve in Bahia, Brazil. Searching through the forest for Golden Headed Lion Tamarins, during a brief break in the rain, I saw what looked like an oddly colored bud on this plant. On closer inspection, I realized it was a spider. August 2011, midday. I haven't identified this yet, so if you have any ideas, email me! - Russ Meister

Another day has gone by. - Wen Chen

This photo was taken in April 2011 in UConn when I was observing spring phenology. Very common species, shagbark hickory (Carya ovata), was waiting for meeting with spring. The bud was wearing bud scales. And the young leaves were like two hands (five leaflets) covering the shy face. Or she was expecting any surprise? In fact I was surprised when I looked at her. - Yingying Xie

I found this unusual-colored trillium in the Connecticut woods while on a herpetology class field trip. This picture reminds me of my mom, as she loves trillium and used to lead my sister and I on hikes in the West Virginia hills looking for them. If any flower could be used as a descriptor of my youth, it would be this one. - Jessie Rack

In Palo Verde National Park (Costa Rica) I would go out during the night exploring by myself. Learning how to walk in the jungle and fighting the fear of being along in the dark, startling with every branch braking, real or imaginary. Then I heard it, chewing something crunchy that turned out to be a moth that was dropped as soon as I spot him with my headlamp; a mouse opossum Marmosa mexicana. This masked little guy is one of the most skittish mammals in the tropics. You can still see some of the scales of the moth he was eating tangled in his whiskers - Johana Goyes Vallejos

How to flirt with a herpetologist - Beth Timpe

Faculty/Postdoc Entries

Kikihia "northwestlandica" male (Left) and female (R) from Matakitaki Bridge Scenic Reserve, Murchison, South Island, New Zealand. These cicadas are likely to have some genes introgressed from a more northerly distributed South Island species, Kikihia "nelsonensis". - Chris Simon

Tragopogon dubious photographed during the 2005 Connecticut BioBlitz held at Two Rivers Magnet School, East Hartford, CT. - Paul Lewis

Itsy Bitsy - I found this unidentified spider in my garden in South Africa. Without a dedicated macro lens I had to make do by getting as close as possible, resulting in way too much flash. Luckily the kitchen was close by and I converted a plastic chopping board into a makeshift diffuser. It was summer so I was being eaten alive by mosquitoes, but I took solace in the knowledge that my subject would soon be returning the favour! - Ben Price

Temnocephalans from a turtle in Boracéia, near Saõ Paulo, Brazil; November 2011. On our way to open the mist nets for birds early one morning, a turtle crossed our path. Once we became better acquainted, we saw she had brought friends. - Anna Phillips